Joomla Security – Security Blog

My Joomla CMS Got Hacked – What To Do?

Peter C — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 17:22:22 +0000

Joomla is popular software that people use to build strong websites as well as online applications. The Joomla site is a website that is based on the content management system software. It helps the website to become popular because of being easier to use and widely accessible.

The Joomla is very effective to the people who have their websites. The webmasters feel easier to manage the websites when they apply the content management system and software to the websites. A Joomla is a website whose content is managed by the system known as CMS. The website content is managed that includes photos, videos, articles, blog posts, comments, reviews and other things on the website. The system does not require any knowledge and technical information regarding the websites management. But you have to make sure you get a good website protection for any Free CMS.

The hackers are always in search of the Joomla websites to hack them. These websites are popular because of the introduction of the award-winning software, CMS.

Get to know about hacking of Joomla

The hackers easily hack the Joomla websites. The webmasters do not have enough information about the ways in which the hackers hack the website and gain control of it. There are various signs and indications that will let the webmaster know that their Joomla is subject and at risk of hacking.

Signs of Joomla Hacking

These signs will tell that the hackers have hacked the Joomla website;

You will feel something wrong about the website.
There could be a white or black screen on the interface of your website.
The hacker has posts his country flag or some tagline with it.
The website will be redirected to some unsavory website.
Some advertisements or links will be shown at the bottom of the website.
You will be notified about the suspected activity on your website by the host.

Reasons of Joomla getting Hacked

It is a real nightmare that the hackers attack your Joomla. It is very common that the hackers will hack and gain the control of your Joomla Website.

Below are some of the reasons that will let you know why the hackers wasily hack the Joomla site;

The website has outdated and old extensions installed in it. It is the top most reason for getting your business hacked.
The webmaster is using the outdated version of Joomla and CMS.
Your website is prone to hacking when you give write permissions on the .htacess file.
Your website is again at risk to hacking when you give write permissions on the *.php file.
The users of the website are allowed to upload the scripts.
You have given execute permissions on the directories of public.
When you are using the extensions that are not prominent and popular.
The webmasters give the credentials to the developers who are untrusted.
The database user is permitted to all.
You are confident enough that other person can not touch your website, and you apply no safety measures.

What to Do When the Joomla site is Hacked?

There are various steps to carry when you got to know about the reasons that make your Joomla site risky towards hacking. In addition to this, some other steps are followed when the hackers hack the Joomla site.

Backup of the Site

You must keep the regular backup of the site. Your website is maintained using the CMS, so you do not have to organize it a lot but keeping the regular backup is important. It will be important to keep all the files and content so that the hacking will not harm any of the content. It will reduce the fear of losing the data.

Scan the Website

When your website is at risk of getting hacked, the scanning of the website is very important. You must scan your websites for any of the malware or spam in the site. There are various tools and online websites like Siteguarding.com that is available to scan your website well and notify you about any changes.

Turn off the Website

You can turn off the website. Go into the offline mode that will help the webmaster to limit the number of users. It can be done in a way in which the IP address is involved. The people can only access to the website that has their IP addresses. You can deny the access to all but only available to the users having IP addresses. It is easier than the offline method that is done through FTP.

Manual Scanning

Test the website through the manual scanning. It may take time as well as the expertise. Only the expert webmasters can use their ability to work on the website. It is difficult and hard to do, but it will give a positive outcome. The malicious files can be presented as the legal files of the website as well as the directory files may have hidden them in it.

Update and Uninstall

The Joomla site must be up to date, and all the older extensions will be uninstalled. The extra things that are not in use must be reduced to invalidity. The access of the web site must be with some of the people only.

Cleaning Process

You can properly check the PCs through which you control the websites. The screening test will check any of the viruses or malware in the computers that can help the hacker to hack the Joomla site. The website itself must be regularly cleaned that includes removing the malicious files found in the system.

Joomla Protection and Antivirus

Some of the companies and websites provide online tools to the Joomla websites to safeguard themselves. Siteguarding.com is providing the services to the Joomla websites related to the protection and the antivirus. We will provide the firewalls that will help the Joomla site to protect itself from getting hacked.

The hackers can hack the websites easily but regaining the control of your website is important and the difficult part. The hackers easily control the Joomla sites, but you have to know what to do in such cases.

Tips to Protect your Website from Malware

Peter C — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 12:52:09 +0000

To hire a monitoring service to get a web vulnerability scanner and a website monitoring tool to protect your site from malware is not the only preventive measures you can take. There are other things you can do from the website builder itself to make it a more secure place to browse. Let’s look at the list of tips to protect your site from malware we have gathered together for you. They are selected tools for WordPress and Joomla, the most widely used website builders worldwide.

Antivirus Website Protection for Joomla or WordPress

In the form of a plug-in, you can get antivirus website protection for the major site builders. A website monitoring tool and a web vulnerability scanner will prevent trojans, malware and any other unwelcome piece of code that might want to interfere with your web page.

At siteguarding.com, you can also get antivirus as an integral protection package. If you are not ready to get full protection, then at least download and get the free plug-in versions for Joomla or WordPress. They can scan your page once a day. There is a 500 file limit, but for most small web pages that is much more than they need. The most important feature of heuristic logic to detect malware is fully operational, and the limits are to get support and in report generation.

Upgrading to a security package or the PRO version will also get you malware removal, the experts’ advice and code analysis to assure your page are protected.

Joomla’s Brute Force Protection

Brute Force is the attack to force password security that can easily be programmed, and therefore practically all hackers, even amateurs, can use it. It is based on testing all possible combinations until the right password is found. A person might not have the patience and time to do it, but a bot can easily go under this kind of exercise.
There is no limit time for a bot, and a hacker may send as many bots as he wants to lots of sites, waiting for a winning match.

The plugin to prevent Brute Force attacks is designed to stop hackers when they try to get into the administration panel of Joomla. The plugin only creates a wall to prevent scanners and bots from accessing the login page if they are not real people. It is a simple tool to prevent a simple attack.

Admin Page Protection

The biggest security bridge of Joomla and WordPress comes from having a common administration page for all websites using the platform. The address is always set just the same. Any hacker knows it, and it is easier to get into an admin page if you know the right address.

There is a plugin for each platform to overcome this shortage. That way, you can get around to the problem and better safeguard your administration page. The first step is to change the default address for something else. This way, nobody but you will know the right place to access the administration panel. The second step works as a website monitoring tool. If somebody tries to use the default address, they will be redirected to the main page. In addition to this, an email notification will be sent to your preferred email address. This way you get to know if somebody is trying to access your web page.

The WordPress plugin has an additional security level with a Captcha code to log in. It will prevent bots from using Brute Force attacks even if they have guessed the new address for your admin page.

Graphic Captcha Protection

Captcha protection has proved to be the most effective security measure against bots. It can prevent spam and other security breaks. The specifically design Captcha for Joomla and WordPress is easy to integrate to any page on this platforms.

It is recommended to use this plugin for pages involving passwords, like registration or reset password requests. If you do online transactions, there is a good place to put it too. It can also prevent spam on your comment sections since you can add a verification process including the captcha protection to ensure a human is posting the comments.

The free version lets you have up to a three digit security Captcha. To improve safety for more numbers or different Captcha sizes, you can get the paid version. For most places, the free version is more than enough.

User Access Notification for WordPress

The plugin to notify access on WordPress is very useful. A web vulnerability scanner or the website monitoring tool cannot give you such information. You can configure this plugin to send a notification when there is any log activity, either if it is successful or not. If a hacker tries to break security using a Brute Force attack, then a full report is generated. The report includes the date, time, browser location to a city level and IP address of the hacker.

There is also a useful feature to get a notification if the hacker has acquired your password. The only thing you need to do is to change it, and your website will again be safe. Without such a plugin, a hacker can use your account, and it would be hard for you to know.